IPART has completed its review of the maximum prices that Essential Water can charge customers in the Broken Hill region to provide water and wastewater services. The prices we set in this review apply from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2031.
IPART has also completed its review of the maximum prices that WaterNSW can charge customers for water transportation services provided by the Murray River to Broken Hill Pipeline (the Pipeline). The prices we set for that review also apply from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2031.
Prices that WaterNSW charges Essential Water for transporting water from the Murray River are a key factor when reviewing the prices that Essential Water customers in the Broken Hill region pay for water and wastewater services.
We have published our Final Report
We have released our Final Report on Essential Water’s maximum prices for its water and wastewater services.
For residential customers our decision is to cap water and wastewater charges. Under our maximum prices, bills for a typical household (using 250 kL per year) will increase by an average of $84 (or 4.7%) plus inflation each year over the next 5 years. Bills for a typical household customer would increase by $145 (or 8.9%), from $1,624 to $1,769 in 2026-27 with inflation.
This is less than the yearly increases under Essential Water’s proposed price increases of $342 or 15.5% per year (plus inflation). Bills would be on average 27% less each year than under Essential Water’s proposed prices.
In setting residential prices below full cost-reflective levels, Essential Water will not be able to recover full efficient costs through prices over this determination period. Under our pricing approach, the shortfall is estimated at $15.3 million ($2025-26) (plus inflation) over the next 5 years. We recommend that NSW Government fund this revenue gap.
For non-residential customers our decision is to set full cost recovery prices. This means non-residential bill increases will be higher to recover their full share of efficient costs, ranging on average between 3.1% to 11.8% (before inflation), depending on customer type and water use.
The increases in maximum prices reflect the increased efficient costs of Essential Water delivering its services over the next 5 years and our affordability analysis.
While Pipeline charges to Essential Water will increase, we have set Essential Water’s prices to its customers on the assumption that Pipeline charges are funded by the NSW Government. This means no Pipeline costs will be passed on to the households and businesses in the Broken Hill region for the coming pricing period.
In reaching our decisions, we considered all feedback received from stakeholders at our Public Hearing, through submissions to our Issues Paper and Draft Report, and responses to our customer surveys. In addition to this process, we considered a range of matters under the IPART Act including:
- the cost of providing the service
- consumer protection against abuse of monopoly power by a water utility
- the need to promote competition in the supply of the service
- the need for greater efficiency in the supply of the service to reduce costs to consumers and taxpayers
- appropriate rates of return on public sector assets
- the social impact of our determinations
- the need to maintain ecologically sustainable development and protect the environment.
Affordability and price increases were the main concerns among stakeholders and individual customers. We made recommendations that the NSW Government completes its review of water rebates as soon as possible, incorporating considerations which IPART has highlighted over several water pricing reviews. This includes improving the effectiveness of existing rebates to provide greater support to those that are most in need of financial support.
The following links provide more information on how we review and determine water prices and about the water businesses that we regulate.
We thank all stakeholders for their input
We thank all stakeholders for their time and effort throughout this review to provide us with their views on Essential Water’s prices. We have considered all feedback in making our final decisions and recommendations.
This review affects Essential Water customers within the communities of Broken Hill, Menindee, Sunset Strip and Silverton. Essential Water provides drinking water to 10,000 households and businesses in the Broken Hill region, as well as non-potable water services to 48 customers in Silverton and Sunset Strip. Essential Water also provides wastewater services to Broken Hill.